Mosque near 9/11 site likely to go ahead despite rightwing fury

The proposed site of the Islamic community centre to be operated by a group called the Cordoba Initiative. Photograph: Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images

A plan to build a mosque and a Muslim community centre within two blocks of Ground Zero cleared a major hurdle today amid an intensifying groundswell of opposition from rightwing pundits and politicians.

The $100m project would see a 13-storey centre, with prayer space, swimming pool and restaurant, rise in Park Place, just north of the World Trade Centre where al-Qaida terrorists struck on 11 September 2001.

Opponents turned to the Landmarks Commission of New York City, which has power to order the preservation of historic buildings, in the hope that it would put a stop to the plans by blocking the demolition of the existing building on the site.

Today the commission unanimously declined to preserve the building, an 1850s Italianate structure that was damaged on 9/11 and has been disused ever since. It said there was nothing sufficiently distinguished about its design that earned it landmark status.

The decision removes an important possible barrier to the plans going ahead, though critics have vowed to continue their fight. A group of protesters were present at the commission vote, including one man carrying a banner that said: "No 9/11 victory mosque".

The plan for a Muslim centre is the brainchild of the Cordoba Initiative, a group set up after 9/11 to build bridges between moderate Islam and the West. Its name alludes to the Spanish city that was famous for its religious toleration under the Moors.

In recent weeks a slew of conservative figures have accused its organisers of insensitivity towards the families of the almost 3,000 people who died in the twin towers.

Last month Sarah Palin posted tweets in which she called the proposed centre an unnecessary provocation that "stabs hearts … twin towers site is too raw, too real". Newt Gingrich, a leading Republican congressman in the 1990s, has characterised the project as an "assertion of Islamist triumphalism which we should not tolerate". He said it was "designed to undermine and destroy our civilisation".

Sally Regenhard, whose son Christian died in the twin towers, said the proposal showed an "extreme insensitivity to the feelings of 9/11 families. If you want to grow understanding between faiths you do not hurt people who were victimised on that site".

In an important intervention that caught several New York commentators by surprise, the Anti-Defamation League, a group that counters anti-Semitism and is dedicated to the fight against bigotry, also this week opposed the mosque as "counterproductive to the healing process".

New York's authorities have so far stood firm. The mayor, Michael Bloomberg, gave an impassioned speech defending the mosque following the landmark vote. He said: "The attack was an act of war, and our first responders defended not only our city, but our country and our constitution. We do not honour their lives by denying the very constitutional rights they died protecting."

Proponents point out that there has been an active mosque on a separate site within six blocks of Ground Zero for the past 30 years. The Cordoba Initiative has also promised that the mosque – which it prefers to call an inter-faith prayer space – will be welcoming to non-Muslim religions.

"A few individuals and groups are seeking to create a kind of hatred for their own political gain. The process has been manipulated by those trying to get headlines and score points," he said.

Elizabeth Berger, President of the Alliance for Downtown New York, said that "New Yorkers live the commitment to freedom and tolerance that makes America great every day. That's why the Statue of Liberty stands in our harbour. The idea of a new Muslim community centre and mosque in Lower Manhattan should be no exception."

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